The Associated Press is reporting that the anti-choice group The Susan B. Anthony List is set to endorse Rick Santorum, marking the first time the organization has endorsed a candidate in a presidential primary.
The Susan B. Anthony List, which has made defunding Planned Parenthood one of its signature goals, might be surprised to find out that Santorum supports funding Planned Parenthood.
As I discussed earlier this week, Santorum told an interviewer in 2006 that he had voted for Title X (even though he thinks contraception is harmful to women and doesn’t even work). Title X is the federal program that funds family planning services for low-income women, and goes to health care providers including Planned Parenthood.
Today Santorum appeared on CBS to address Foster Friess’s aspirin-between-the-knees “joke.” Santorum, as in the 2006 interview, made an effort to demonstrate that although he personally opposes birth control, he does not intend to restrict access to it. In doing so, he once again said he supported Title X funding. Of Friess’s “bad off-color joke,” he told Charlie Rose, “It’s not reflective of me or my record on this issue. You know, it’s funny that I’ve been criticized by Governor Romney and by Ron Paul for actually having voted for something called Title X, which is actually federal funding of contraception.” Watch:
According to the SBA List website, Santorum has pledged to defund Planned Parenthood. So he’s either misleading them, or he’s misleading everyone by attempting to use his past record on Title X funding to pretend he supports access to contraception.
